Sex differences in attitudes towards computers

The purpose of this 1986 study was to assess the attitudes towards computers of first year students at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges. Attitudes were studied in an attempt to ascertain the factors that predicted interest in computers at the college level. The effects of Harvard's core computer literacy requirement were also studied.

A total of 270 first-year students at Harvard and Radcliffe participated in this study. Questionnaires were distributed to students early in the fall, and in December a second questionnaire was given to those students who had completed and returned the first questionnaire.

The precoded questionnaire solicited demographic information, and contained two scales measuring attitudes towards the core computer requirement and towards the use of computers. The questionnaire also contained several open-ended Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)-type response cues, such as: "Jane is a classics major. The classics department is undergoing a large push towards computerization. Jane..."

The Murray Center has acquired the original questionnaires from both waves of data collection, and computer-accessible data from coded responses.